POP ROCKS PRODUCTION AND FUNCTIONALITY COMPARISON. Hannah Samuelson and Kelsey Wilkens. The purpose of this experiment was to simulate the production of Pop Rocks in the laboratory and to test their functionality compared to that of mass-produced Pop Rocks. The results collected demonstrated the difficulty of producing Pop Rocks outside of the commercial facility, and that the lab created Pop Rocks failed to produce gas in comparison to the Pop Rocks brand candy due to problems encountered in the process. The principles applied were the idea of super saturation, the ideal gas law, and toward the end of the experiment, crystallization. From the lack of an interfering agent and super atomic pressure, Pop Rocks were difficult to reproduce in the laboratory and failed to possess the properties of the factory made Pop Rocks. The gas production of the lab-made Pop Rocks was extremely low compared to that of the copyrighted Pop Rocks, therefore confirming our hypothesis.
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Key Terms: Super saturation, softball, hardball, super-atmospheric, interfering agent, & crystallization
1.Kleiner, Fredric, Roy, Pradip K., Kuchman, Michael J. "US4289794: Process of preparing Gasified Candy" http://www.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question114.htm&url=http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US04289794__ (Accessed 2010 February 21)
2. "How do Pop Rocks candy work?." 01 April 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://www.howstuffworks.com/question114.htm> 26 February 2010.
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